New Mexico State’s surprising defensive misfortunes of late have put the Aggies (2-6) in the position of underdog heading into this weekend’s matchup — one that head coach Doug Martin calls a “character game” for his team — against a one-win Texas State (1-6, 0-4 Sun Belt).

“We’re going to have to play extremely well on offense to get the points that we need, and obviously we need our defense to play much better than we have for the last couple of weeks if we’re going to have a chance,” Martin said. “Your character gets exposed when you get into periods of the season like we’re in right now. No matter what you’re record is, but especially when you’re record is what we are, your character really gets exposed, so that’s what’s going to happen this Saturday.”

For Martin’s squad, that character and mental toughness will especially be tested on the defensive side of the ball.

After giving up 48 points in last week’s loss to Georgia Southern to bring their last-three-weeks total to 155 points, NM State’s once surging D is in desperate need of a bounce back game. Luckily for the Aggies, Texas State is one of the more anemic offensive groups in the country.

The Bobcats, who have also turned to a freshman at quarterback in Tyler Vitt, have struggled across the board in Everett Withers’ sixth season in charge, ranking in the bottom-25 nationally in both rushing and passing offense while putting up just over 21 points per contest.

Martin did acknowledge how it takes time for a young offensive group to come together — like how NM State has since Josh Adkins’s promotion to starter — and said that he’s been impressed Vitt’s toughness under center for Texas State, but this should still be the just the matchup that Frank Spaziani’s defense needs at this stage in their season.

In what, at the moment, looks like team weakness versus team weakness on one side of the matchup, the other looks to feature two units that have been carrying their respective teams in recent weeks, with the rolling Aggie offense set to face a formidable TSU defense.

“When you look at their games — I mean they’re in almost every game… Very good defensive football team. They play with a lot of speed, a lot of schemes defensively. A lot of drop eight and drop nine, even, into coverage sometimes, so they can cause the quarterback a lot of problems,” Martin said of the Bobcat defense. “You’ve got to be very patient with them. You’re not going to get many deep throws on them, they’re not going to play a lot of man-coverage, one-on-one stuff… so it’s one of those games where you’ve got to make first downs and keep drives going.”

Because of their three-man front, Texas State doesn’t generate a lot of quarterback pressure (with just eight sacks in seven games), but the coverage heavy tactics that Martin eluded have made them tough to pass on, defending 25 passes throughout the season and holding opposing quarterbacks to a subpar 53.5 percent completion percentage in their last four games.

This will be another tough challenge for the NM State coming off of facing one of the better defenses in the country in Georgia Southern, but after topping the 400-yard, 30-point threshold for the third straight game last week while becoming only the second team to score over 30 against the Eagles (joining No. 2 ranked Clemson) this season, Martin and his unit are confident they can keep the hot streak going.

To snap their current two-game skid, though, the Aggies — or more specifically Adkins — will likely have to get a hold of the turnover issue that has plagued the team over the past two weeks, with the redshirt freshman throwing two picks and losing three fumbles in that span after not giving the ball up once in his first two starts of the season.

“Especially when you’re defense is struggling, you can’t turn that ball over, because the other team is going to score now when you do that… Those were the only two possessions that we didn’t score for the whole second half [against Georgia Southern] — we scored on every other possession, so the only time we got stopped is when we stopped our self,” Martin said when asked about last weekend’s turnovers. “[Adkins] went through a little phase there in the second half where he kept looking at the scoreboard thinking, ‘I got to score every time,’ you know, and we got him back in to just throw completions and get first downs, and the scores come naturally. He got back to that, and played well, but we do need to eliminate the turnovers, particularly fumbles.”

NM State would have to win out to become bowl eligible for the second year in a row, but right now, the team can only worry about what’s in front of them, and the only way they can win out is by taking care of their business this Saturday in San Marcos.

“I’m just trying to get them through today, you know? I do have a great ability to just stay in the moment — not get too high or too low with all those type of things,” Martin said. “I think that’s what our players need to focus on, and I think that’s why we’ve improved offensively. Our guys have bought into just getting better and we’ve gotten better as the year’s gone on here… at every position, not just quarterback. So our guys just need to stay [in the moment] and get one win.”